The Need of Test Transformation in the Financial Domain

The Great Recession had darkened the global economy in the first half of 1900s, which took a while to recover. The last decade has witnessed some phenomenal changes in the financial domain across the globe and has created remarkable opportunities not just for the strong economies of the world, but also for the emerging ones. Nevertheless, along with opportunities it has equally posed challenges.

To begin with, let’s consider the challenges & opportunities created by the Internet and Mobile revolution.

Today, imagining a day or week without online payments / transactions can give a sinking feeling to every customer / user existing and operating in this fizzing global economic environment. The financial services domain has gone through an enormous amount of digitization. It has been further triggered by the advent and proliferation of various mobile devices and mobility services.

The growing mobile penetration and increasing density has resulted in a paradigm shift for the financial services sector. Technology innovation and varying customer expectations has positively impacted the massive progress experienced by the sector.

A study by IDC on the financial applications software market estimates that it will reach $24.2 billion by 2019. Whether it is an online / mobile interface for a retail bank or an e-wallet transaction, financial services govern every aspect of our existence.

A report by Allied Market Research states that the global mobile wallet market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 127.5% from 2012 to 2020. The key growth driver for this is, effectively managing customer expectations and experience.

Additionally, a recent report released by International Trade Administration mentions that the global Financial Technology (FinTech) activity has increased considerably in the last 2 years and is creating ripples globally. The fundamental concept is to merge financial services with technology to refurbish the financial services domain for cost effectiveness and raising the quality index

The underlying purpose is to create a much more consistent and secure financial domain for the consumers and economy at large. Incidentally, most of the ventures in this segment are predominantly start-ups. Further, Goldman Sachs estimates that $660 billion in revenue could migrate from traditional financial services to FinTech payments, crowd funding, wealth management and lending.

This implies that the sector is creating waves of opportunities, resulting in a pressing need for a robust back-end strategy and IT back-up to manage several aspects pertaining to secure and user-friendly interface. Software testing for super performance is the need of the hour and has been witnessing a surge.

Investing time & resources in devising a Testing strategy is like investing every day for assured returns in the long run and optimistically in the short run.

Specifically speaking, testing transformation means a set of processes and practices followed to attain the defined business objectives. The core purpose is to constantly foster an environment that improves processes and enhances quality standards for its stakeholders. So, the constant focus is on maintaining and improving quality standards along with developing this sense amongst every person within the system / organization.

Nevertheless, the standards of quality may differ across organizations and industry domains. It can be defined or will primarily depend on the organization’s overall vision and goals. Testing transformation process involves changes at various levels in an organization, as it aligns with the culture, technology, processes and overall performance expectations.

Testing transformation brings about a change in the way you evaluate your testing needs and overall plan the entire process. It endeavours to take your testing experience beyond the basic testing benefits. It brings about a cohesive approach towards delivering tangible results and takes quality to a higher level of optimization.

‘Business Assurance’ is the new ‘Quality Assurance’

Ensuring quality is the most rational way of ensuring business effectiveness; a constant endeavour to ensure performance and desired outcome confirms absolute commercial success. The term ‘Business Assurance’ signifies various factors, namely, Risk Assessment and Mitigation, Compliance Management, and Business Continuity Management.

All this precisely boils down to ensure that your business processes continue to work smoothly and securely with the required compliances.

The financial services sector is prone to a lot of security issues / lapses and stress in terms of delivering desired user experience from time to time. Testing Transformation determines an integrated approach by:

Rationalising costs and enhancing productivity of the testing function

Successfully establishing a Shift-Left approach that reinforces the constant involvement of testing across the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

This injects the need and importance of testing within the overall functioning of the organization and makes an external impact while delivering quality and secure interface for the customers. The word ‘testing transformation’ predominately emphasizes on delivering ‘next-generation’ or ‘phenomenal’ experience to the customers in this constantly evolving and steaming economy.

While Manual Testing still prevails, Performance testing and digital testing are gaining further ground. Considering the challenges in the financial services domain, it requires long-term efficiency that facilitates repeatability of tests and at the same time accelerates the speed with which the tests are executed.

Mentioned below are some logical steps that can revolutionize the contemporary testing platform and further strengthen the financial services domain.

A modernized testing framework with the required tools and methodologies provides:

Developers with feedback and ultimately empowers the Agile Development process

The testers a better environment to automate the process and align it with the application development